The Underground Sea

by John Berger, Tom Overton (Editor), Matthew Harle (Editor)

The Underground Sea is a succinct, urgent collection of writing from John Berger’s archive. It brings together for the first time his work on mineworkers and the miners’ strikes and has been edited as a set of actions for today. Publication of The Underground Sea marks the 40th Anniversary of the 1984-5 Strike, at a time when people are rediscovering the necessity, power and possibilities of collective action.

Including transcripts and image-essay of his rarely-seen BBC programme, Germinal; interviews and his essay ‘Miners’, it places itself in the heart of a Derbyshire mining village, with reflections on the everyday life of a typical pit community. Berger grapples with the politics of witness as he studies the miners’ labour and the wider community shaped in service to this work. Reflecting on their precarity, he goes back to Zola’s novel for hope that ‘a new world is germinating underneath the ground. And when it arrives, it will crack open the earth.’

Genres: Nonfiction

128 pages, Hardcover

Published February 29, 2024

About the author

John Peter Berger was an English art critic, novelist, painter and author. His novel G. won the 1972 Booker Prize, and his essay on art criticism Ways of Seeing, written as an accompaniment to a BBC series, is often used as a college text.

Later he was self exiled to continental Europe, living between the french Alps in summer and the suburbs of Paris in winter. Since then, his production has increased considerably, including a variety of genres, from novel to social essay, or poetry. One of the most common themes that appears on his books is the dialectics established between modernity and memory and loss,

Another of his most remarkable works has been the trilogy titled Into Their Labours, that includes the books Pig Earth (1979), Once In Europa (1983) Lilac And Flag (1990). With those books, Berger makes a meditation about the way of the peasant, that changes one poverty for another in the city. This theme is also observed in his novel King, but there his focus is more in the rural diaspora and the bitter side of the urban way of life.

Reviews

[Tom Mooney · Rating 3 out of 5]

what was there was good, particularly the opening, but this is a seriously slim volume really.

[Mia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Coming from a mining family I was intrigued by this novel having stumbled upon it, however I personally wasn’t really impressed by it. I’d definitely say it is more so for fans of Berger rather than for people interested in the mines/mining strikes as it has little to offer. That said, I found the interview portion to be interesting but other than that I felt let down! Really more so my fault for expecting something a little different.

[Zoja Michelle]

this needs context to be read

[EvilManPenguin · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Georgia Swadling · Rating 2 out of 5]

this is really hard to rate because i can’t help feeling it just wasn’t for me and it would absolutely have merit for someone else, but the point stands that it makes virtually no sense without context that isn’t provided and that IS a failing. i got this as a free library ebook because the description sounded interesting but it gives no hint of quite how much that it’s throwing you straight into the deep end. i will say i gave it a solid go and reread and reread and reread passages and sentences that weren’t sticking but in the end i finished this through sheer force of will alone. that said there were small elements that did gleam through, but not enough to make it worthwhile. if anyone has a recommendation of a book that fits this description and can be read as a standalone PLS let me know.

interesting excerpt that i did understand:
B: But if this [fully automated mining] happened, would you welcome it?
R: Yes.
B: I mean you would like to see the time . . .
R: Yes.
B:. . . when there aren’t any miners?
R: I would. From what I’ve experienced . . . from what I’ve experienced I wouldn’t like a dog of mine to go in. From what I’ve experienced. In the pits. And if my lad would have lived, I can tell you this: he’d never have gone in the mine.

[Catrin Harrison · Rating 5 out of 5]

A visual and written essay covering not only the history of mining in this country, but also the awareness we must have as outsiders looking in that we are just that: looking in. I am someone who loves mining history, but I’ve never worked in a mine- Berger’s essay is self aware, and his portrayal of the proletariat miner, pure.

[Neil Fulwood · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bit of a mish-mash, this, containing two essays, the transcript of Berger’s TV production ‘Before My Time’, and a sort of photo-essay combining stills from his documentary ‘Germinal’ with transcriptions from the voice-over narrative. But the immediacy, intensity and importance of the book thrums through its pages.

[Charlie Gill · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 Stars.

It's hard to transform a TV documentary into a book, but one handles it relatively well, with carefully selected and evocative shots, which bring to life Berger's focus on the coal mines of Northern England in a pre and post Thatcher world.

[epnscm · Rating 4 out of 5]

picked this up on a whim with no understanding of John Berger but will be educating myself now

[Gin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Berger is as cutting as ever. Although I really enjoyed the extracts, I didn’t feel convinced that there was enough material to justify the collection.

[Philippe · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not a Berger fan, but I'm interested in coal mining and this is a handsomely produced booklet, so I gave in to the temptation to add it to my library. This publication brings together some of Berger's writings to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the British miners' strike. The 120 pages are laid out as follows: an introduction by the editors, a 2-page prose poem by Berger, a photo essay based on stills from Berger's 1972 documentary Germinal, a transcript of a conversation (dated July 1963) between Berger and Joe Roberts - a miner born in 1890 who spent his working life in the pit under conditions that were still essentially 19th century - and a concluding essay from 1968 on the nature of mass demonstrations. The title of the book is a direct reference to Emile Zola's novel. I found the interview transcript very interesting and well worth the shelf space the book takes up.


Miners. Photo: (c) Lorenzo Castore

B: What kind of way were miners treated at that time by other people who were not miners; - not in the pits?

R: Well, if I must give you my honest opinion, they just thought the scum of the earth, because in them days we had what they call a demonstration in Blackpool - a miners' demonstration - and that was as early as fifty-odd years ago. and the old tale goes that when the miners come, the people - the residents - were surprised. They tought they had tails. They thought the miners had tails. That was the general conversation. But after a while they realised what an acquisition they was to the country they changed their minds about this tail."